Keywords

FormalPara Interviewees

Gina Bedenoch

Chris Behrenbruch

Maurizio Bussi

Özlem Denizmen

Rajeev Dey

Lars Flottrong

Soulaima Gourani

Christine Graeff

Nik Kafka

Tristan Lecomte

Bob MacMahon

Antónia Mészáros

Martin Müller

Sigfried Nagl

Claudia Olsson

Olivier Oullier

Vikas Pota

Ian Solomon

Barbara Steiner

Lucian Tarnowski

Mark Turrell

Lisa Witter

Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today. -Malcolm X

1 Introduction

  • According to “A Scorecard for Humanity,” a report from the Copenhagen Consensus Center, our world gains every time an individual is educated, and our world pays a price when people go illiterate. The report suggests that in 1900, when 70% of the world was illiterate, we lost a whopping $240 billion or 12% of the global GDP because so many remained illiterate. Currently, that loss is around 7%, and in 2050 when illiteracy falls further, the cost would have further reduced, but that loss would still be around 4% of the global GDP. In the future, those regions and nations of the world that manage to educate its people would gain, whereas those that do not pay much attention to this crucial aspect would continue to suffer losses, hidden in plain sight. Some of the interesting predictions for 2050 include:In 2050, though the world would have made tremendous progress in basic education, illiteracy would persist with almost 500 million uneducated in the world. Illiteracy shall be most concentrated in the regions of Africa and South Asia, whereas most other nations would move toward a total eradication.

  • In 2050, there would be a systemic change in the higher education sector across the globe, as the age cohort of 18 to 24 years in Europe would shrink, but in South Asia and Africa, this would continue to grow. Many higher education institutes in Europe would face shutdown or takeover, mainly in the Eastern blocs. In the United States, the demographic composition of students in higher education would change, where it would tilt toward more non-whites and immigrants. African higher education in 2050 would be focused on digital content rather than high-cost physical infrastructure-driven ones. By 2050, Asia would emerge as a superpower in higher education led by China catering to nearby regions.

  • In the future, there would be a disruption of the current pedagogic and regimental learning systems toward flatter, flexible, and open systems based on research in learning sciences.

  • In 2050, education would be driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and big data—resulting in complete personalization of curriculum and methodology focusing on each individual's minute needs. All mundane tasks in education will be performed by AI.

  • In 2050, compared to the traditional didactic pedagogy, education would move toward project-based learning, based on practical experience and learning. Lifelong learning would become a norm, where every experience would be driven by a micro-certification.

  • In 2050, educational spaces would evolve to be like superlabs—multidisciplinary, microschools with individual attention and personalized learning compared to those closed factorylike atmospheres with focus on adult control and surveillance.

A projection by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) reveals an interesting story in basic education. In 1970, 50 years ahead in history, there was a massive level of illiteracy, where almost one quarter of the world was with no education. Under 10% of the world population had any education of upper secondary and above. However, we have made great strides in improving the education quality around the world. Illiteracy has dropped currently to just about 10%, and people with more than upper secondary education has increased to a substantial one third of the population. However, challenges remain even now, where there is still a huge inequality in education between different parts of the world. Whereas in Europe, Central Asia, and the United States, the literacy levels are almost near 100%, in the lower income parts of the world, including South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, unfortunately, still more than a third of the population are with no education.

Cut to 2050, it is projected that illiteracy in the world would have further reduced to just 5% of the world population. Almost half of the population would then be having education of upper secondary or above. The most remarkable of this would be China, who would continue to be one of the most populous in the world, with about 1.4 billion people, but would have managed to ensure that its entire population has some level of education. However, India, projected to be the most populous country in the world by 2050 with a swelling 1.6 billion people, is projected to be still plagued by illiteracy at more than 12% levels, which in real numbers would be close to 200 million people. When we look at the illiteracy levels of the other populated countries in 2050, we find that the problem would continue to be a serious one. Nigeria, with a 400 million projected population, would have 32 million illiterates; Pakistan with a 338 million population and with a high illiteracy of 17% will result in 58 million illiterates; Ethiopia with a 205 million projection would have a staggering 40% illiteracy, resulting in 82 million illiterates; Bangladesh with a 192 million projected population in 2050 will have 18 million illiterates; and Egypt with a 160 million projection will have 10 million illiterates. These six nations themselves would account for 400 million illiterates. Unfortunately, the situation might not be improving much in some of the African countries like Niger with 36%, Mali with 34%, Burkina Faso with 29%, and Chad with 20% illiterates, even in the year 2050.

So, the first prediction in education and learning in 2050 is that though the world would have made tremendous progress in basic education, where people with more than primary education will increase from a mere 18% in 1970 to 63% in 2050, illiteracy will continue dogging the world with almost 500 million uneducated. This phenomenon of illiteracy shall be most concentrated in the regions of Africa and South Asia, whereas most other nations would move toward an almost total eradication.

2 Shape of Higher Education to Come

Compared to the progress that would be made in basic education, in higher education, this would pan out differently. By 2050, in the developing parts, especially South Asia and Africa, population would continue to grow. Compared to this, populations in Europe would shrink. At the same time, there would also be great improvements in life expectancies and child mortalities compared to the current world. These demographic trends would have far reaching implications on the higher education scenario. Let us analyze how this would play out in four different parts of the world, Europe, South Asia, the United States, and sub-Saharan Africa.

According to IIASA, the prominent European nations, including Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, during 1970s, had almost 10% of their population aged 15 plus educated to degree level. By the time it was year 2000, this increased to around 20%, whereas by 2020, it further increased to 30%. In 2050, it is projected that this figure would be closer to 40%. However, by 2050, Europe would be faced with a shrinking population, especially in the youth population between 18 and 24 years, who would be the target for higher education. As the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development projects, there would be significant shifts in the number and the nature of the student population by 2050—resulting in an overall decline of total student numbers. Hence, though around 40% of the 15 plus years’ population is projected to be educated to a degree level, if we go by numbers than by percentages, there would be a decline.

According to their paper, “Demographic Challenges and the Future of the Higher Education,” Manja Klemencic and Jochen Fried Manja Klemencic suggested that Europe would have a significant impact, as the future demographic patterns affect the region. The most affected would be the age group of 18 to 24 years, which would decrease significantly, affecting the competition among the higher education institutions to win over their mindshare. Hence, these institutions will also be faced with the challenge of attracting and importing foreign students, in order to compensate for the domestic demand fall. Many of these institutions would be closed down, whereas some of them would survive through takeovers or mergers from institutions abroad, especially from China. In order to survive, many institutions of higher education would be forced to resort to two strategies. First, unlike current times, where students strive to get admitted to the best institutions, by 2050, it would be the institutions trying to create the right incentives for students to be attracted—whether they are domestic, foreign, or adult lifelong learners. Second, higher educational institutions, which currently erect a wall of exclusivity around them, would be forced to adjust their programs and structures in such a way that they are more permeable and inclusive. The higher educational institutions in Europe, including the very best, would have to de-emphasize their selectivity to accommodate the needs of an increasingly diverse student population.

According to a typology of projected higher education developed by Mızıkacı, in the book “From Here to There: Mileposts in Higher Education,” ed. B. Baumgartl and A. Glass. Vienna: Navreme Publications Series, by 2050, most European nations will be enrolling majorly the immigrant and foreign students compared to their native populations in higher education. According to this typology, higher educational institutions in countries like the United Kingdom, France, and Germany would be comparatively safer as these countries would remain attractive for labor migrations. However, in countries of the former Eastern bloc like Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, and Poland, this risk would be multifold, first due to their lower birth rates and second, since they would continue to be less attractive from a migration point of view resulting in overall negative net growth rates. Hence, for these countries, it would mean lower domestic and foreign enrollments, leading to closure of many institutions of higher learning. Some of these European countries would resort to strengthening the Bologna process to enhance student mobility by making higher education systems more compatible. This could enable the less attractive destinations to export their native students abroad and then create adequate incentives of employment to win them back to their native nations.

Meanwhile, the United States, which has built and nurtured some of the finest higher education institutions in the world, is expected to buck this trend of collapse of the higher education institutions in Europe. Two important trends would help the United States in this. First, the country is predicted to have relatively higher birth rates comparatively, though this would be driven by the Afro-American and Hispanic populations compared to the traditional white members. Second, even in 2050, it is predicted that the United States would continue as a strong labor market with high standards of living, and hence, the lure of this nation as an important destination of immigration would not ebb. These would enable the United States to continue in the position as a strong importer of foreign students.

However, there is another aspect that needs to be factored in, which is the demographic composition itself of the United States. According to Pew Research Centre projections, by 2065, about one in three Americans would be an immigrant or have immigrant parents. This research suggests that though whites would remain the largest racial group in the overall population, more than half would be accounted by non-whites—Hispanics one quarter, Asians 14%, and Blacks 13% of the population. As can be assumed, these changes in the overall demographics would have great implications for the higher education sector. Hence, though the higher education in the United States might be less threatened compared to Europe, they would still be required to build in more flexibility and openness to attract and manage a predominantly non-white student base.

In the case of Africa, this scenario would play out differently, because unlike Europe, the region would witness a growth in their population and a bulge in the higher education age cohorts. The population in the age of attending higher education—18–24 years—is forecasted to increase to 235 million by 2050, which would be almost double that of 2020. However, according to the Wittgenstein Centre Data Explorer, currently less than 6% working age population has a postsecondary education in sub-Saharan Africa. As already the higher education systems in Africa are among the least developed with the lowest participation rates in the world, this population growth would pose immense challenges than any opportunities as such. Another challenge that the higher education institutions of Africa shall continue facing even in 2050 would be the underrepresentation, if not non-representation of groups such as women, disadvantaged groups, and rural areas. A third challenge for the African nations would be the fact that even in 2050, many of them would remain impoverished and cash-strapped and hence would not be in a position to invest significantly in higher education.

Hence, for Africa, the higher education in 2050 would rely on two strategies: first, improving the access by compensating for the limited physical infrastructure and skills through widened open university access and digital delivery, where governments might also partner with international donor institutions. Rapid growth in smartphones and digital infrastructure would emerge as the most viable proposition, in a similar way as the financial democratization has played out in Africa. Compared to capital-intensive infrastructure, digital learning promises a cheaper and more instantaneous remedy in Africa. Second, as Anne Goujon of the IIASA World Population Program suggests, the African Union would have to strengthen its harmonization strategy to enhance the mobility of students by building compatible education programs and by strengthening the quality assurance mechanisms. Freeman John Dyson, the British American mathematician, suggested that in the future, especially poorer countries would be forced to adopt technologies that are easily accessible on phones and small computers to make a huge difference to education. As the world becomes increasingly more connected, it would be possible for the underdeveloped countries to reach out to a larger population at a fraction of today's cost.

In the case of Asia, though the population would continue to grow, their access to higher education might take a different trajectory compared to Africa. According to Bie Dunrong in his paper “Shifting Demographics in Higher Education in Asia,” higher education in Asia experienced decades of expansion in access, piggybacking on an extended period of unmatched economic growth, where higher education spread from the elite to the masses, leading to a sort of democratization. According to the paper, “Asia: The Next Higher Education Superpower” published by the Institute of International Education, the economic growth of Asian countries is linked to knowledge production, advanced skills, and rising demand for higher education. In 2020, the People's Republic of China alone accounted for 30% of the world's university graduates, whereas India added hundreds of millions. Though several Asian governments have significantly stepped-up education spending to quickly improve their higher education systems, by 2050, there would be a considerable amount of strain to the colleges and universities on their infrastructure, resources, and expertise, as the demand for higher education would continue to expand multifold.

Interestingly, added to the domestic pressures of expanding participation in higher education while ensuring quality under severe resource constraints, Asia would emerge as a higher education destination by 2050. China would draw an increasing number of students from regions like South Asia, Indonesia, and Korea, whereas India would cater to regions like Africa and other South Asian countries. Compared to Africa, where the low-income governments take the strain of higher education, Asia would witness an increasing, if not total, participation of private organizations. This near monopoly of private organizations of the higher education space in Asia would ensure that it remains healthy and sustainable, driving the economic engine.

So, the next prediction is that in 2050, there would be a systemic change in the higher education sector across the globe, led by the fundamental fact that the 18 to 24 age cohort in Europe will shrink, whereas in South Asia and Africa, it would continue to grow. Hence, in Europe, there would be a drastic reduction in the number of domestic students, resulting in an intense competition between the higher education institutes to attract students. Many institutes will face shutdown or takeover, mainly in the Eastern blocs. In the United States, the demographic composition of the higher education will change, where it would tilt toward more non-whites and immigrants.

African higher education in 2050 would be focused on digital content and infrastructure rather than expensive physical infrastructure. By 2050, Asia would emerge as a superpower in higher education led by China. Here, the development would be more powered by private enterprises than government and public investments.

3 Pedagogic Overhaul

During the initial ages, as humans lived as hunter-gatherers, learning was only through play and exploration, with almost unlimited freedom granted from the adults. Peter Gray, a research professor from Boston College, says that the hunter-gatherer way of life had been skill- and knowledge-intensive but not labor-intensive. Hence, they did not work long hours, but whatever work they did was exciting, which did not distinguish between work and play.

However, agriculture changed all that, when humans settled down and started to undertake rigorous long hours of relatively unskilled repetitive labor. Children until then were used to restricted freedom and were forced to spend time in the fields. Play and freedom became enemies of the work they had to do because then a good child was someone who was willing to work for long hours taking orders from the adults. As the Industrial Revolution emerged, it became imperative that children, rather than giving them unlimited freedom, should be taught to be good workers of the future—crucial lessons being punctuality, following orders, and a tolerance for long hours’ of repetitive tasks. As Alvin Toffler suggested in his 1970 book “Future Shock,” “Mass education was the ingenious machine constructed by industrialism to produce the kind of adults it needed. The problem was inordinately complex. How to pre-adapt children for a new world—a world of repetitive indoor toil, smoke, noise, machines, crowded living conditions, collective discipline, a world in which time was to be regulated not by the cycle of sun and moon, but by the factory whistle and the clock.” Repetition, hard work, and discipline were given importance, and education was always under the guidance of an adult, never by oneself.

For several centuries, our education has been on a standstill. The way things have been taught, the methodologies employed, and the curriculum have more or less remained the same with just marginal improvements. Though in the recent times schools have become more liberal and secular in their attitudes, some bits of it remain exactly the same as centuries earlier—a six-hour school day, repetitive homework, adult micromanagement, strict regiments, compartmentalized grades, and a clear distinction between work and play because our education reflects the work that we are preparing our children for. Since we are preparing our children to work in tightly hierarchical, closed workspaces, our educational systems are also a reflection of these. Mark Turrell, educator and founder of Orcasci, a consulting firm designing scaling and growth strategies, says the current education system is broken. It does not serve the purpose of the modern society because it is modeled on the Prussian style to teach people to be factory workers and soldiers. However, he says that this system is so entrenched in our thought processes that it would take a long time to get rid of. Gina Badenoch, founder of Capaxia, an organization for lowering bias and improving inclusiveness in recruitment, agrees with this and suggests that our educational systems have not changed for a long time—resulting in our educational systems not reflective of the situations on the ground nor catching up with the developments in other areas.

However, the future of education in 2050 would not be the same as the education that we have followed since the time of the Industrial Revolution. In the future, there would be a complete disruption of the current hierarchical, top-down institutions and corporate structures. Workplaces would evolve toward flatter, responsive, and dynamic structures, where there would be an absence of hierarchies and rules, and there would be more shared power between the top and the staff members.

Hence, by 2050, our educational setups would start reflecting the flatter and transparent organizational structures. As Edward J. Maloney and Joshua King in “Inside Higher Ed” suggest, over time, schools would move away from the current transactional methods of instruction toward a more relational approach to learning. There would no longer be strict hierarchies in the classroom, where an adult supervises and gives orders to each and everything that should be learned. Rather, learning would evolve into a more democratic approach, where students learn not through the vertical top-down from the adult teacher but horizontally through their interaction with each other. As careers are more flexible, open, and exciting, education would be gamified, where children would learn through games and apps—which would not only deliver information but would also enable them efficiently imbibing and internalizing these. Learning would become more creative and practical where students would learn and apply on the go.

Another important development in 2050 would be educational systems imbibing the discoveries in learning science more than ever. According to Sir John Holman, a reputed academician, future classrooms would be built on solid research and evidence rather than on convenience, political whims, and personal conjecture, as it has been happening until now. In the future, our educational systems would incorporate the latest learnings from neuroscience and psychology, developmental biology, and mathematical modelling to further our understanding on how the brain works and how we learn. These learnings would drastically improve the way we teach young people. According to Sir Holman, in the next 100 years, we would learn more about the structure of the school day, about teenager's circadian rhythms, and their optimum about the optimum way of sequencing learning between initial learning and reinforcement. Until now, though there have been substantial evidences against several of our current educational practices, for example, though forcing teens to start school early in the morning damages their learnings, our systems conveniently discarded these insights to continue rely on current conveniences. However, in the future, these researches would no longer remain on the fringes with limited influence but would rebuild the real foundations of our educational system. By 2050, schools of the future would have unlearned many of their entrenched systems to adopt scientifically proven methods and researches on cognitive and brain learning sciences.

4 Artificial Intelligence-Based Personalized Education

Currently, education is perceived as a mass affair. From a public utility point of view, it is important that governments across the world educate as many of their citizens as possible, which is easier to achieve through a mass effort. From a private education institution point of view, an effort that could be directed to a large amount of people is much more profitable compared to a personalized one. However, future education would move away completely from a mass-driven effort to a customized product catering to the specific personality of individuals.

This change would be driven by two events. First, as Carolyn Stuart, Education Sector Lead at Network for Learning, suggests, unlike in the past centuries, currently no one has any dearth of knowledge. All information is available at our fingertips through the information networks like the Internet. Our educational systems until now were conceived around imparting information to the students. But in the future, knowledge itself shall be innate and ubiquitous—whether it is through an external entity like the knowledge networks not locked down to a device or location or through internal DNA imprints. Hence, by 2050, education would have moved into a role, where it just supports students to use what is relevant and how to interpret what they innately know relating to a particular situation. Second, with the increased usage of big data analytics and AI in the other sectors, it would just be a matter of time before individually personalized educational experiences can be created at a cost-effective manner.

Lucian Tarnovski, a hindsight futurist and founding curator of Civana, an open global society committed to working on humanity's greatest challenges, says that in the future, technology and AI would ensure that our brains and knowledge are eternal. We would even have recreated Albert Einstein and Mozart by that time or at least their knowledge. According to him, the impact of this could be huge, where students would be taught not by teachers but by the master himself, for example, Albert Einstein teaching the theory of relativity and recreating his perspective and experience. Such classrooms would be totally different from the schools that exist today. They would no longer be about hand-me-down experiences or memorization but about creativity and direct experience.

According to Lasse Rouhiainen, in his article “How AI and Data Could Personalize Higher Education” in Harvard Business Review, the foundation for personalization through AI is big data. A large amount of student data would be collected and processed in such a way that it allows AI to effectively improvise every aspect of education. Personal data would be a key ingredient of this personalization. The AI-based learning systems would use this personal information to figure out individual learning style, abilities, and progress and then use these to customize teaching methodologies and curriculum. Hence, each student, based on their capability and interest, would have a separate pathway of learning. According to Rouhiainen, with a personalized learning experience, each student would enjoy a unique educational approach fully tailored to one's individual abilities and needs. Each student would be offered the right incentives and motivation as required to nudge them toward completion. Dropouts would be minimized because any learning problems are identified early enough to allow appropriate corrective actions. AI-based educational systems would also ensure that greater precision and personalization would be achieved in the case of feedbacks, allowing students with objective assessments and allowing them time and exercises to imbibe lessons, completely at their pace.

Another interesting aspect with personalization is that many mundane and repetitive tasks would be taken over by AI-enabled systems—where teachers would have time to focus on subjective aspects of education. For example, many rule-based subjects like mathematics could be taken over by AI algorithms, whereas teachers can devote their time to explain the nuances and exceptions. As AIs create the optimal learning environments, teachers would restrict themselves to guidance, mentorship, and support.

5 Lifelong Project-Based Learning

According to the traditional didactic pedagogy that we follow now, whether a student likes it or not, she still has to earn certain subjects. For example, though a student might be more inclined toward arts, she would still have to do mathematics and physics during her schooling. This takes away students’ attention from the real subjects that they are passionate about and have a genuine interest in, making it difficult for them to develop their interests fully and associate themselves with the real world, leading to an overall abstract nature of education.

However, the future would be different from the current pedagogic-based learning—where students irrespective of their interests are forced to learn certain subjects, which have no real-life value or context for them. Education would be based on a project-based learning methodology in the future, where students learn and apply the lessons learned in real time. According to Melanie Baird, from Ontario Tech University, in project-based learning, unlike teacher-centered, convention education, students work on live projects, which evaluates critical thinking, creativity, and communication on the project rather than in theory. Unlike current systems, where they learn first and then apply future learning, this would be about doing first and then learning through it. Students would be guided through a series of activities and would be benchmarked on a constant basis against their real potential and peer potential. Gina Badenoch, founder of Capaxia, suggests that soon a time would come when children would start working only on practical things rather than memorize any theories. They will learn by doing rather than by listening to an adult. Unlike today where learning is hierarchy-driven, the future of learning would be through brainstorming and interactive sessions.

According to Sam Mire, on his interactions with 23 experts on the future of education, classroom interactions in the future would be project-based rather than theory-based—focusing on live problem-solving. Hence, education itself would not be limited to the age groups that we would typically associate it with—say until 24 years of age—but would span across age groups. In workspaces, employees would have a constant requirement to keep upskilling, and hence, the educational processes would be tightly integrated with their career. They would keep earning micro-certifications like digital badges, as they continue doing their regular jobs. The future of education would involve formats where employees would seamlessly upskill themselves, improving their functionality and application, fitting into their requirements of employment. In fact, in 2050, the line between education and career would have blurred so much that every time you perform a job your learning would be tracked; it would be assessed on how much is new learning and how much adds on to existing skills, and then the results would be integrated into a lifelong educational path.

6 Reinvention of Learning Spaces

As we saw earlier, since our educational systems are a reflection of our workplaces, the spaces where we learn, our schools and colleges, and their look and feel have largely remained the same from the advent of the Industrial Revolution. Our schools were not designed for expanding children's minds but rather for inculcating the values of punctuality and obedience—the most important values for the workplaces. According to education specialist John Holm, our systems oriented toward mass education was designed after the factories and conveyor belt system. In the current system of education, children unhappily sit in rows, facing the front, undergoing repetitive toil. These are reflections of our workplaces where there is indoor toil, crowded living conditions, collective discipline regulated by timetables.

Our current educational spaces dating back to the nineteenth century were also modelled after a need for surveillance, again a reflection of our workplaces of the time. According to Kim Dovey and Kenn Fischer, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne, classrooms during the Industrial Revolution era were controlled by a teacher, supported by a group of monitors, delivering instructions set by the teacher to the fellow students. This has been the model that we follow even now, where every classroom has 25 to 40 students, controlled by the teacher. Three phenomena have perpetuated any lack of innovations as far as learning spaces are concerned until now. First, until recently, the classrooms continued to reflect the workspaces that we are used to. Second, the legacy model enabled teaching as a profession, and an industry perpetuates the top-down form of learning rather than any other form, including peer learning. And third, though there were some innovations in the educational spaces, lack of exposure to the utility of other forms held back our administrators and teachers to the traditional learning spaces.

However, future classroom designs could be completely different. As educationist Erica McWilliam suggested, future schools would be different, since workplaces that would continue demanding social order are on the wane. According to Edward Maloney and Joshua Kim, both focused on the future of education, by 2050, the fixed seating tiered lecture hall would be replaced by flat and flexible classrooms. These agile classrooms would be complemented by robust and immersive virtual environments. According to them, as by 2055, more than half of today's activities would be automated; this would reflect the educational sector also, where most of the constituent activities would be automated.

But there are other predictions as well. As our workplaces move more toward agility, our educational curriculum would move more toward less structured, open patterns compared to the current rigid methodology. According to Hyuk Jang, educator in Busan, South Korea, in the future, learning would no longer be limited to a physical school rooted to one place, but there would be unlimited study spaces, enabling the students to be more open to the world around. According to them, students will learn in travelling classrooms, where the real world itself would be their campus. Physical campuses, if any, would be more of a dynamic hub, rather than a singular point where education is imparted. Exploring and experimenting with real-world challenges rather than simulations would be the way future classrooms would be structured. Any physical remnants of the current campuses would evolve as support centers, where technical support would be provided rather than any real education.

Currently, schools are more surveillance-oriented, where students are constantly under supervision, ensuring that discipline is enforced and that they are adhering to the overall systems. However, increasing automation and reliance on technology would mean that all school designs would be security-oriented rather than surveillance-oriented, where safety of the students in a virtual environment becomes paramount rather than their adherence to a protocol. These schools are expected to look more like Superlabs, where multidisciplinary education is imparted and completed using technology. These Superlabs would be able to impart learning to any number of students, with the same level of efficiency, where technology would ensure individual attention, despite whether one or several thousands are being taught at a time.

Nonetheless, some experts believe that the organized educational structure of today, monopolized by the public and private sector, would fold and move toward a family-driven affair with the advent of technology. Just as workplaces would be more individual entrepreneurship-driven, schools would move toward homeschooling, where students would be able to study what they want, whenever they want, and for as long as they want. This would ensure that families become more closely knit, where students spent more time physically and emotionally along with their parents. There is also an alternate approach suggested, where it is predicted that the school concept might not get eliminated completely by homeschooling but rather give way to a mixed approach. According to this theory, today's large physical setups accommodating several hundreds of students under one roof would move toward a microschooling approach. Microschools would be more than homeschools because it would bring together a few students, preferably under ten, much less than a mass-oriented school. Gina Badenoch, founder of Capaxia, reflects this thought when she says in the future, learning would be imparted more through homeschooling rather than going to a physical infrastructure that aggregates pupils. Development in technology will aid this change. These new types of schools would be focused on providing personalized learning and higher access to teachers to emphasize an individual student's growth. Michael B. Horn, cofounder of the Clayton Christensen Institute, suggests that in traditional schools, kids were being programmed in chunks, with no specific experiences provided. Comparatively, microschools would be small groups of about three to five students who complete their virtual schooling together for socialization and in-home instruction support.

So, the next prediction for 2050 is that educational spaces that are currently modeled after factories of the Industrial Revolution era with focus on adult control and surveillance would evolve to be like Superlabs, multidisciplinary, microschools with individual attention and personalized learning.

7 Interviewees

Gina Badenoch

Social entrepreneur and photographer and founder of Ojos que Sienten AC and Capaxia UK

Kids in school lack in developing tolerance and compassion. Realization will come soon. The need to change the educational system has not changed for a very long time the methodology. Not all education should be digital but should allow also education through interaction to develop personal skills and emotional intelligence.

Chris Behrenbruch

Biomedical engineer, cofounder, and CEO of Telix Pharmaceuticals

We will ditch the notion of primary, secondary, and tertiary education. Instead, we will have lifelong education that is focused on enriching our biological lives before we transition entirely into a digital existence. The goal will be to have a maximally experiential and fulfilling biological life so that the being is fully evolved before transitioning into digital life.

Maurizio Bussi

UN diplomat and director at the International Labour Organization

Set traditional values of justice, honesty, respect. Blend these values with the world around, more cosmopolitan, changing by the day, acceleration, etc.

Özlem Denizmen

Opinion leader in women empowerment and founder of Para Durum

Like biology, education will revolutionize. People needing to learn more quickly. We may be downloading things to our heads, e.g., with a headset learning Hungarian in few minutes. Now all is there, but we don't know how to get it. In the future, we will know how to get it, but we won't know what to do with it.

Rajeev Dey

Founder and chief executive officer of Learnerbly

Future will be about networked learning, connecting people from around the world and learning from home, through a device. Learning will be supported through games or apps on your phone.

Lars Flottrong

Business Advisor, MoB

Strategy and risk management

Which three parameters (regardless of technology, sociology, and finance) in education will be crucial in the future and why? Science will focus on gen-technology and new materials; the five main languages will be used as standards in the world—English, Chinese, Arabic, French, and Hindu; and Airspace laboratories will be the central R&I centers.

Soulaima Gourani

Entrepreneur, author, keynote speaker, CEO, and cofounder of Happioh

In the future, people who prefer to think and do the same way as they have always been doing will not be in demand in Western countries. Therefore, our education system will change to put more focus on emotional intelligence, collaboration, discipline, imagination, creativity, empathy, respect, and morals. In the next 50 years, the world will need people with new “life skills.”

Christine Graeff

Global head of people at Credit Suisse

The right skills for the right job is the name of the game. This is the challenge of the next years as to how our education system prepares the next generation for roles which do exit today. It is also the key challenge for companies to ensure that they have the right skills to deliver in an ever faster moving world and also fulfill their role in developing the human capital they are entrusted with.

Nik Kafka

Founder and CEO of Teach a Man to Fish

Mass education in higher income countries will be ultra-personalized, optimized through artificial intelligence, and delivered through neural network brain interfaces. Only the wealthiest will enjoy in-person teacher-led learning, and the rich experiences this offer. In conflict-affected and lowest income countries, though the technology to deliver it exists, many will still miss out on an education entirely.

We humans are creatures of habit. We’re happy not to solve the issues we know how to solve today, so it’d be surprising if that changes in the future. Those of us who fight the good fight for more opportunity and more equity will still be fighting. But I'm sure the numbers of those learning very little at all will go down, so things will be better overall.

Tristan Lecomte

Chief executive officer of Pur Projet

How will you prepare your child for the future to be happy and successful? We go to the forest, and we observe animals and plants every day, but I let him watch cartoons and video games and do what he wants. He even eats meat; I don't care; I am not judgmental. I like to plant as many trees as I can and maybe inspire people but fully respect those who think otherwise. You cannot force anyone. I plant trees with my son as many times as possible.

Bob Macmahon

International affairs journalist, managing editor of Foreign Affairs Magazine and council on Foreign Relations

Future generations should stand on their own in an increasing globalized world. Critical thinking, languages, cognitive skills, and a moral compass will be crucial skills.

Antónia Mészáros

Executive director of UNICEF Hungary

Digital technology presents both dangers and unprecedented opportunities for youth. On one hand, it can provide remote access to quality education for millions, who would not have had similar opportunities locally, leveling the playing field for talent all over the world. On the other, the digital gap means that those who have little or no online access are even more hopelessly left behind, creating desperate global and societal divisions. But digital technology is not only transforming education for the “connected,” it is also interfering with learning outcomes in unpredictable ways through entertainment and social platforms: Many will lose out as a result of distractions, shortened attention spans, less emphasis on a traditional education, and less time invested in the skills or knowledge required for lucrative careers. Others however will be able to absorb even more information and develop cutting-edge skills through digital channels and formats, like video and virtual or augmented reality. How to get the boost without being dragged down the many rabbit holes will remain a tough challenge to navigate for even the most switched on parents and educators.

Martin Müller

Executive director and academic forum of GEneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA)

Critical thinking in my opinion remains the most important skill for the future, which is to be able to distinguish good from wrong and having the ability to understand the systems and use them to your advantage. If you follow the flow, you will be exploited, but if you develop your ways to think critically, you will probably retain an advantage ahead of others. This may distinguish winners from losers in the future.

Siegfried Nagl

Former mayor of the city of Graz

Which three parameters (independent of technology, sociology, and finance) in education will be crucial in the future and why? First, complexity tolerance as an answer to the simplifying populist loudspeakers but also as a strategy against an end-to-end algorithm of reality; second, tolerance of ambiguity as an immunization against any form of fundamentalism and as an impulse to never stop “thinking ahead”; and third, connectivity as a prerequisite for recognizing the potential of others and integrating it into one’s own thinking.

What is the most important thing we should leave to the next generation to ensure the security of the planet? This question has already been answered! But we have to keep repeating the answer because we are too far away from deriving our actions from this knowledge: Sustainability—and this should be everyone’s understanding—means only ever consuming the already generous interest of our system Earth but never the capital, i.e., our basics.

Claudia Olsson

Founder and CEO of Stellar Capacity

In 2050, continuous learning will be an essential driver in the economy. With continued rapid technological progress, lifelong learning will be key to every career, and our learning goals will be supported through truly personalized digital assistants who adjust their teaching styles and the content delivery to match every individual’s learning styles and preferences. Learning opportunities will be democratized and accessible to everyone.

Olivier Oullier

Professor of behavioral and brain sciences, cofounder, and chairman of the Board of Inclusive Brains

Be adaptive! Nobody can predict what will happen; adaptation is key to survival. It is true for biological, social systems, but now, being mobile and adaptable will be increasingly important for everyone.

I don't get the idea of global citizenship. It would be extremely boring to have only one global citizenship. I love the fact they depend on where you come from, where you grew up, and what experiences you had to shape your personality.

Vikas Pota

Founder and CEO of T4 Education

The future of education depends on the choices we, as a society, make today. If governments choose to listen to our teachers on the frontlines of the global education crisis and if they prioritize funding for education despite dire economic conditions, support teachers and pay them properly, facilitate strong schools, break down barriers for girls, implement effective policies to ensure technology works effectively to support teaching and learning, harness the power of personalized learning, and design curricula that impart the soft skills that are essential for the workplace of tomorrow, then I believe we can see the world in which every child, everywhere, receives a quality education by 2050. Will they? So far there’s been a lot of talk. It’s time for action.

Ian Solomon

Professor of practice of public policy and Dean of Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy

What advice would you give to your children in order to succeed in the future? Be resilient, nimble, and flexible, and learn foreign languages. We will all speak through google glasses translating.

Compassion is the most important value—alleviate suffering of others. Creativity is also important. How do we take advantage of the opportunities in tech development?

They should not to see themselves as any one class or identity but a mix, fluid, and flexible. In order to become increasingly better humans, being connected is the game.

Barbara Steiner

Director of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation

A palpable optimism and spirit of reform in the discussions around education have succeeded. Spatial and organizational foundations for an approach to education that goes beyond frontal teaching have been created. Communication spaces, differentiated and flexible spatial situations, and communal areas such as a kitchen, learning islands, and team spaces support this approach. The school as a social and cultural venue has opened to the city. The building of schools is viewed as a transdisciplinary project, the space as an educational tool. New holistic learning formats, trust, appreciation, relationships, participation, and self-responsibility become central to the learning process. Independent learning across lessons, subjects, and even ages is encouraged. Teaching is participatory and fluid; students and teachers exchange and coproduce knowledge at eye level. The world turns into a classroom where instead of the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) points system of academic achievement, a WTCS, a global collection of study experiences has won recognition.

Lucian Tarnowski

Hindsight futurist and founding curator of United Planet Game

Your reputation will be so much more important because everyone will be aware of it. You should treat other people as you would want to be treated.

A plausible argument would be that in the future, only poor people will own things because share society will emerge. I expect a big crisis to disrupt the way we operate, like a major financial crisis of sort, which will remodel the way we live. A much more shared economy, more barter, and a social economy are so much more powerful because identity is tied to it. So, I can easily barter with my strengths and influence without the exchange of money. Ownership will lose its value and importance. Like now, the rich own far many things that they don't use.

Cars will not be needed to be owned; scheduling will be so efficient that a car will be waiting for you when you want to go somewhere. No traffic, no looking for car parking space—everything will be on a grid with self-driving cars.

The mapping of GDP in its current form will only continue until a major crisis comes along. Mass tipping point will arrive as we realise that we are part of an ecosystem, and we have been breaking it until now. The idea of ownership will experience a total backlash with people looking for much more efficient models.

The make home movement will rise. People will be producing stuff at home; there will be no need for transportation; the entire global shipping industry and globalized outsourcing will change. We will be much more health conscious.

People will need to be T modeled—highly specialized at the same time extremely broad in understanding of how their area applies to every other area they operate in. People will be able to navigate better, connecting the dots. Innovation of these complex systems will lie in the intersections of disciplines, e.g., scientists working with artists and poets. Values created at intersections will be realized.

Our brain and knowledge will become eternal—Isaac Newton, Einstein, and Mozart will be teaching us themselves—we will know so much about them that they could be recreated. Einstein would teach us himself the theory of relativity. The model of the classroom will be totally different; schools will not exist like today. It will not be about memorization but rather about creativity.

Mark Turrell

Strategist, educator, entrepreneur, founder, and CEO of Orasci

What should our children and grandchildren expect? Changing circumstances by better access to resources, e.g., education leading to better jobs and better partners. They should be free to choose and be honest and good. Help yourself to help others!

Education system will still largely be broken probably; the Prussian style to teach people to be factory workers will take a long time to get rid off. Online education will be putting pressure on the education system. Education gap between people will be possibly widening. Voting age may be moved downward from 18 years old.

Lisa Witter

Executive, serial entrepreneur, writer, public speaker, cofounder, and executive chairman of Apolitical

Academic rigor is less important than the ability to ask questions. Be an inquirer, going deeper and deeper asking questions. If you ask my kids the most important things in life: Be kind, have fun, and be good at things (you can master anything if you spend 10 thousand hours on it). I am teaching my children mindfulness, presence, stopping yourself and catching yourself, and grounding yourself. All this will be normal in the future.